When the Dawn Breaks
by KateBB7
Summary: "He didn't care. He couldn't breathe." Join the team on a case, involving a kidnapped girl. Risking their lives is just another day at the office. Cutting it close, is not part of the equation. First NCIS:NOLA-fic. Pre-Melody-and-Tucker. Independent.
1. Chapter 1

_AN - Hello! I thought the NOLA-site looked a bit slow and figured I would give you an early Christmas present. Be aware - English is not my first language, I'm not only bilingual, but penta-lingual, if that's a word. Maybe you'll see some grammar mistakes, but I'm fairly sure, you wont see any spelling mistakes. If you don't feel Persallish, this is not a story for you, so, kindly, hop along. If you are a Persaller, then please read. We'll start out with at a run - more like a sprint, to get you guys hooked and then I promise the next chapter will be up before next year. Read, enjoy and leave a review with your comment. The more reviews, the faster the next chapter will be readable. Good night! /K._

"We gotta wait for backup, LaSalle!" Sonja hissed behind him, even though she knew it was like talking to a wall. They were already making their way up the stairs to the abandoned three story mansion. It had been only ten minutes, since Pride had called them with the location of the navy lieutenant's nine year old daughter and the kidnapper. Chris had stopped the car outside the old iron gates and after seeing the sturdy chain and new padlock tightly locked, they had climbed the eight feet tall stone wall, surrounding the place, and dropped into overgrown bushes. Now, in cover of the dark in the night and the shadows of the trees they were sprinting along the badly maintained gravel driveway leading up to the house.

"You know we can't wait, Percy," Chris replied quietly when he raised his weapon and trained it on the front door they were approaching. Sonja mimicked, staying only a few feet behind him, her gaze travelling through every corner and window that might pose a threat for the two agents.

"Damn it," she muttered under her breath when her partner took the front steps two at a time and she followed him. The old mansion had been painted white, but it was peeling off in big pieces all over the front. Overgrown shrubbery and weed were covering the aging façade

"The door is open…" Chris whispered over his shoulder as he pushed the heavy door in. The two of them cleared the grandiose hallway and Chris was heading to the stairs in the corner when Sonja put her foot down.

"Hell no, LaSalle, remember what happened last time you went up the stairs?" Sonja hissed and headed up in front of him. "I'll check upstairs, you'll go down," she continued and before her partner could make any objections, she was already half way up the stairs and he swore under his breath and turned around to clear the next room. Methodically moving through each room he passed took longer than he anticipated and Pride shouldn't be far away with Gregorio by now. The impatience was starting to tear at his edges as his worry for the little girl was growing by the minute.

Likewise, on the second floor, Sonja had nothing but a lot of dust on every surface. The air in the mansion was moldy and stale and a sick smell of rotting flesh came closer for every room she passed. It was probably just an oversized rat or a bird, Sonja thought, hoped, as she cleared another bedroom and moved on to the next and last floor.

Chris had moved through the whole ground level and the basement, all of it empty, as he straightened up and looked around in the sun room. He lowered his weapon and sighed, confused. This was the address Pride had given him. This was the address Triple P had traced the kidnapper to. But nothing was here, Chris thought and looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the garden. He almost turned around to head up the stairs to help out his partner, when he caught a glimpse of a dim light in the back of the garden, cornering the patch of forest. The light flickered and Chris pushed through the door and started running the small distance to the cover in the trees. As he came closer to the white painted pavilion, a shadow began pacing inside on the ground floor. The silhouette looked to be about a foot taller and twenty pounds heavier than Chris himself and as the figure moved away from his line of sight, Chris advanced to the door and entered quietly. The pavilion was almost round and windows gave the structure a full three-sixty-view of the surrounding forest and garden, the soft, dim lights came from candles placed around the room. He trained his weapon around the chairs and tables as he headed for the spiral staircase in the center of the room. Softly, he tiptoed up the steps and peered across the landing. The top floor was designed like the ground floor, but with a better view through the full-sized windows. The figure he had spotted only a few minutes earlier was on the other side of the room, looking out over the lawn, a gun in the hand by his thigh. He was muscular enough to have a huge bull neck.

"NCIS! Drop the gun!" Chris said aloud as he walked up the last few steps and came in closer. The man held his hands out from his body, holding the gun by the trigger guard with his index finger. He turned around, slowly, and then leaned down to the floor, letting the gun drop the last inch. "Slide it over here and keep your hands where I can see them," Chris ordered and put his foot out to stop the sliding gun. He kicked it further away and moved closer. "Hands behind your head," he continued, as he warily circled around the man and positioned himself to cuff the guy. He did as Chris ordered. The man was clad in black, the only color on him would be the blond, almost white hair and the sharp blue eyes, exactly like the photo of the girl they were searching for.

"She's not here," the man said, matter-of-factly, as if it was just another day at work for him.

"Then where did you put her?" Chris asked as he fished out his cuffs with his left hand, still keeping his weapon on the man. This was too easy, he thought. When he moved the last few feet, the man suddenly spun around, using his left elbow to knock the agent's weapon out of the way and before the gun had clattered to the floor, Chris felt a sharp pinch in his left shoulder, only a million times worse and caught a flash of a box cutter blade protruding from his shirt. The pain made him growl as he lashed out with his fist, hitting nothing but thin air as the man rammed his shoulder into Chris's chest and both of them went flying to the ground. The man in black seemed to have almost fifty pounds on Chris, not the initial twenty Chris had despised, as the two of them tumbled around on the floor. Chris almost took more punches than he could throw himself, and was surprised by the agility in the large man, just like the quick reactions almost left him dumbfounded. With the pain rummaging along in the back of his mind, he was able to land a solid kick to the man's head with his knee, only to be on the receiving side of a thrown ashtray as the heavy, compacted steel connected with his ear and instantly made him dizzy when he scrambled for his gun. Chris had spotted his weapon only a few feet from his hand and when he grabbed it and spun around he fired of three shots, aiming for the center mass.

Sonja instinctively ducked and flinched when she heard the three distant pops echo in the house. She was halfway through the top floor and her heart began racing when she realized what she had heard. She forgot all about the last rooms as she sprinted through the house, almost tripping over her own feet when running down the stairs. She had to grab a tight hold of the railing, so she wouldn't collide with the landing.

"Chris!" she yelled, when she stopped at the bottom, panting nervously and listening hard. She ran to the back of the house and when she spotted the open door in the sunroom, she looked out and caught a glimpse of the dim light a few hundred yards away. She ran through the door and straight across the lawn, sprinting as fast as her short legs could carry her, carelessly ignoring the yells and the sound of pounding feet behind her.

Pride hastily stopped the car next to Chris's truck in front of the old gate and both he and Gregorio jumped out of the doors. A couple of NOPD cruisers came to a halt, effectively blocking of the road. Their lights were flashing, but the sirens had been muted. Pride shook the padlock and the chain and cursed under his breath as both he and the FBI agent looked around.

"There," the younger woman stated and pointed to a spot in front of the wall, where the grass had been trampled. The two of them hurried over but froze when they heard the secluded cracks of three gun shots. They rushed over the wall, both of them needing a run-up before making the climb.

"It must've come from inside the house," Pride commented as they hurried up the driveway, guns drawn and ready. They had to force themselves into going slow, to look around every corner, to make sure, they wouldn't run into the path of another bullet. The three shots had sounded in quick succession and then followed by silence, which was normally a good thing if the perp had actually been wounded. If someone would be stupid enough to open fire on his agents and they hadn't fired back, that would be bad. That would mean the perp was smart enough to get the drop on them, before they had the opportunity to react, which made this a very dangerous situation. Pride and Gregorio were almost at the front door when Percy's scream echoed in the nerve-racking silence.

"LaSalle," Gregorio whispered, trying not to run up the stairs and get a look at the horrifying scene that was awaiting them. She wasn't sure when and why it had happened, but she had grown to care for the NCIS team. Percy's feisty attitude, LaSalle's southern charm, Pride's intelligence, Loretta and her motherly figure, Sebastian and Triple P, even though she had never thought she would go that far. Back in the reality, she followed the older agent through the doors and caught a glimpse of Percy running fast through the house.

"Sonja!" Pride called but the small agent didn't notice anything. Seconds later, the two of them were following her through the sunroom and they quickly spotted the pavilion in the dark.

Not only did he miss, all three bullets went wide to the left and Chris fleetingly thought about his inner ear and if the ashtray had busted his balance. The man, surprised by the misses, dived at the agent and tried to wrestle the gun out of Chris's hands. When it was pushed out of reach again, Chris was able to place another couple of hard blows to the man's kidney. He hardly flinched and Chris realized that nothing short of a magazine full of bullets would stop the man. Using all of his remaining strength, he was able to push the man off him with a growl and turned around to launch himself through the air. He grabbed his gun and was about to whirl around, when the total weight of the blond man hit his back and the two of them nose-dived down the staircase. Their limbs were tangled as they tumbled over each other and crashed into the ground floor with an unattractive cacophony of grunts and groans. The two men didn't move for a few silent moments, both of them dazed by the series of somersaults. Chris wasn't sure, if there was a part of him that didn't hurt right now. He pushed the man's lower leg off his chest, rolled around and pushed himself up on his knees and elbows and took a moment to cough and splutter until the floor in front of him was stained red with his blood in small drops. He didn't seem to be able to make a coherent thought at the moment as his body screamed for attention, loud enough to make his ears ring. Sluggishly, he reached for his weapon and a moment before he could brush his fingers against the butt of the gun, an arm was wrapped around his neck and yanked him back. Finding a renewed strength in the panic of not getting any air, Chris fought and wrestled, only to find the grip growing tighter. He clawed at the strong muscles in the forearm underneath his chin and could feel how the lack of oxygen made his thoughts even more incoherent. Calmness rushed over him and, distantly, his eyes fell on his gun in front of him. Reaching for it, stretching the best he could his fingers closed around the barrel and he pulled it closer. It fit perfectly in his hand as it wavered in the air. With no air left, Chris lifted the gun, pointing it past his ear, aiming at the man's head or chest or something in between, he didn't know. He didn't care. He couldn't breathe. He pulled the trigger once before everything went dark.

 _AN - Hello, again! So... how do you like it? Remember, leave a review! /K._


	2. Chapter 2

_AN - Hello! Thank you for the reviews! I was surprised to get that many responses. Well, I got the next chapter for you. Forgive me for the wait - I've been a little stressed lately. I hope you like this one, but it's not quite the sprint like first chapter - you'll have to hold on a little longer if you want to know what happened - I'm evil, yes, I know that. Let me know what you think. /K._

 _24 hours earlier_

"First round's on me," LaSalle drawled and caught the jacket off the back of his chair.

"I hope you brought your wallet, cause I'm gonna need a lot of first rounds after today," Percy sighed at put the finishing touches on her report with loud taps.

"What about you, Special Agent Tammy Gregorio, you in?" Chris asked, strolling over to Brody's desk where the agent was tapping away furiously on the keyboard. She answered without looking up and she kept tapping away.

"No, sorry, not tonight, I got plans already," she said as she stood and grabbed her bag.

"Suit yourself, girl," Percy said as she walked over to stand next to Chris and corrected the strap on her shoulder bag. "We're still going, though, right?" she asked her partner with a raised eyebrow.

"We're all going somewhere else, Sonja," Pride said ruefully when he walked out of the kitchen. He headed straight for the filing cabinet to retrieve his gun.

"Aah, man, we've just finished a case," Percy sighed and walked back to her desk to grab her work backpack.

"Come on, King, we need to rest between cases," Chris said when Pride holstered his weapon.

"A lieutenant's kid was taken from their home," Pride threw back at him with a look, tense enough to silence the team.

"Kidnapping?" Percy asked as the team walked up to the front door of the little house. "At home, at night?" she continued, sounding a little bit surprised by the boldness.

"Doesn't seem right, does it?" Gregorio asked from the back.

"Technically, this could be a family matter, but we don't take that chance until it's proven," Pride said.

"Does the lieutenant have any intel or access someone would want to get their hands on?" Chris asked before he entered the front door as the first one. Percy followed soon after and took a look around the entry. They had arrived in two cars, and had to leave them at the end of the street because of the massive presence of squad cars blocking every kind of access to the house.

"We'll have to ask her," Pride answered as he stepped inside with Gregorio. The front lawn was flashing red and blue and police officers milled around the place, most of them wearing gloves, collecting samples of every kind. "Gregorio and I will talk with the lieutenant and the husband.

"We'll go find some witnesses, then," Chris offered and both he and Percy caught a look of a red faced woman sitting by a breakfast bar and a man next to her, looking equally as terrified, before heading out.

"I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through," Gregorio whispered as they walked into the kitchen and the two of them looked up with hope in their eyes. It quickly faded away, when they realized it wasn't anything new.

"I'm Special Agent Pride with NCIS and this is Special Agent Gregorio, FBI," Pride introduced and gave them a few seconds to look at his ID.

"I'm Alex Dale and this is my wife, Janet," the man said and the woman smiled bravely. "What's NCIS?" the man asked, confused as normal.

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service," the fragile woman said before Pride could respond. He noticed she sat a little straighter when she said it, her training kicking in. It was hard to imagine she was a lieutenant five days a week, when you looked at her now.

"And the FBI? I only thought they were involved when the state borders were crossed. You don't think our daugther has been taken to another state?" Alex asked, getting more alarmed by every word.

"Take it easy Mr. Dale. Don't jump to any conclusions, it's still early," Pride tried, sounding calm and comforting.

"Mrs. Dale, do you have a recent photo of…" Gregorio let the sentence hang in the air, fishing for the name of the girl.

"Masey," Janet said, sniffled and slid of the chair. She walked to the fridge and retrieved a picture of a smiling girl, with white hair and endlessly deep blue eyes. She studied the face for a moment, like she was trying to hold on to memories. She turned around and handed it the photo to Gregorio. "This was taken four months ago. Her hair is a little bit longer now," the mother said, holding back another wave of crying and sobbing. Gregorio couldn't help the tiny smile that was forming on the corner of her mouth as she looked at the girl in the photo.

"She's beautiful," Gregorio said and showed the picture to Pride who nodded. Then she eyed the two parents and then looked back at the picture. She could see a bit of the mother's nose and mouth, but other than that, the girl didn't look like the two people in front of them. Janet had auburn hair and brown eyes and Alex had grayish eyes and almost black hair.

"She takes after her biological father," Alex commented when he noticed Gregorio study their faces. Pride looked at him for a moment and then at Janet, for an explanation.

"Her father left before she was born and I met Alex shortly after. We married and he adopted her before her first birthday. Alex is her dad in every single way," she clarified and Pride nodded.

"We're going to need everything on her biological father," the older agent said and Alex went into panic again.

"You don't think he's the one who took her? I mean, he hasn't even seen Masey, ever. We've never heard from him, either," the man started to breathe faster and Janet had to put a calming hand on his arm. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm down.

"Matt Wainwright… last time I saw him was a decade ago. He lived in the French Quarter, then," she supplied the two agents with the address and Gregorio wrote it down in her notebook. Pride gave Gregorio a look and she nodded curtly, before stepping away to make a call. The faster they could get a location on the man, the better.

"Patton, I need you to run a name, asap," she said even before the man had a chance to greet her.

" _Go, I'm ready,_ " he replied, his voice serious as he could sense the urgency in her tone.

"Matt Wainwright, he lived in the French Quarter ten years ago," the agent said and heard the tapping immediately.

" _Got it. Driver's license from Louisiana, registered owner of a cottage just out of town. I'll text you address and directions. No vehicles in his names, oh… he's got a criminal record, though. Armed carjacking and a smash and grab, six years ago,_ " Patton reeled off.

"Thanks," was her only response before she ended the call. Pride came over to the corner she had found. "Our guy has a record of armed carjacking and smash and grab," she said and glanced at her phone when it beeped. "He's got an address outside the city. We can grab LaSalle and Percy to pick him up, if you want?" she suggested and Pride nodded.

"You go, I'll stay here for a while. Nine out of ten kidnappings are committed by a relative, so it is possible, that he's our guy. If there's a ransom demand, I want to hear it first hand," the older agent said quietly.

"All right. You got anything else out of them?" Gregorio asked.

"She doesn't work with any sensitive intelligence or anything that could provide a motive. The husband is a banker from a high class family," he replied.

"Wait, you think, this could be set up for his money? They don't live like wealthy people," she said in a hushed voice and looked around the house. If she stretched her income, she could afford it, too.

"It's is a possibility, but nothing is sure yet. Call me, when you get him," he said and turned back to continue the questioning. Gregorio headed out and quickly caught a glimpse of the two agents she was looking for.

"Let's go," she called across the front garden and the two agents apologized to the man they were talking with before they hurried over to meet her. She gave them a quick rundown and soon after, they were heading south in two cars. It didn't take them long to cover the distance, with the flashing lights clearing the way. They came to a halt at the driveway of the small property and exited the cars.

"I'll go around the back," Chris announced and jumped the dog fence as graceful as a ballet dancer. He ran fast, but low his weapon already out and prepared. Gregorio and Percy ascended the steps to the veranda and positioned themselves on both sides of the front door. The house was dark and silent, but they still took every kind of precautions.

"It looks too empty," Sonja noted before Gregorio knocked on the door, so hard, that even Chris would be able to hear it. She only glanced at Sonja, before raising her voice. Both of them had their weapons and flashlight at the ready.

"Matt Wainwright, federal agents, open up!" Nothing happened and Sonja tried the handle. She pushed the door open, and the two of them hurried inside, clearing the room effectively. Gregorio went into the kitchen while Sonja turned left into what should be a living room. Finding it empty, she continued to the bedroom and wrinkled her nose when a faint smell surrounded her. The buzzing of flies attracted her attention to the half open door to the bathroom. She pushed it wide open with the toe of her boot and grimaced by the sight. The flashlight exposed the dead and definitely decaying body of a young man.

"Clear!" she heard from the other end of the house and Sonja stepped back a few paces.

"In here! We got a body!" she called out and holstered her weapon before pulling on a pair of gloves. When trying the light switch, nothing happened. She waved at the air, trying to get the flies away as she squatted down and checked the dead man for a wallet or anything that might reveal his identity. Chris and Gregorio came in and both of them scowled at the smell and sight.

"Power's out. No sign of a little girl being kept here," Gregorio said. "Not even a scrap of edible food in the kitchen," she said. The dead man was on the floor in the confined bathroom. He was dressed in long shorts, with pockets covering every inch of the fabric, and a dull, red t-shirt, that had been washed so many times it was almost worn out. Sonja pulled out a driver's license from a pocket on the side of the left knee.

"Well, say hello to Ian Shelton," Sonja said as she compared the photo of the driver's license to the dead man's face. "He's twenty-four and has an address just down the road from here," she continued and handed the little card to Chris who had knelt down on the other side of the body.

"You think he has a connection to Wainwright? Or the girl?" he asked and pointed his flashlight at the faint bruising around the body's neck. "Looks like, he was strangled. We should get Loretta out here," Chris mentioned and rose to his feet. He shone his flashlight at the cracked mirror in the medicine cabinet above the sink. His multiple reflections stared back at him. It looked like a spider web and a few trickles of blood had seeped into the cracks. He opened the cabinet and looked at a variety of small pill bottles. Sonja whistled, impressed by the dozen orange containers with white caps.

"That's something," Sonja said as Chris took out a few and read the labels.

"They have Matt Wainwright's name on them. Seroquel, Abilify, Zyprexa, Compazine, what are these?" he asked, confused.

"They are all treatments for Schizophrenia," Gregorio said, looking at her phone, and dialed a number. "I'll call Pride and give him an update," she said.

"But these are almost full," Sonja said and read a few more of the labels. "They are all prescribed by the same doctor. Some Dr. E. Mackey," she said.

"He must be off his meds," Chris said and stepped out of the bathroom. He walked to the closet and opened the door. He reached up to the top shelf and pulled out a cigar box from the otherwise empty closet. "Take a look at this," he said when he opened the box. He took out a stack of old photos. "This is the girl, Masey," he said. The photo was taken at a distance, but clear. It had a horizontal crease and worn edges, it had possibly been carried around in a pocket for a while.

"Now we know for sure, that he knew about his daughter," Gregorio said, glancing over Percy's shoulder. "Pride's on his way with Loretta and Sebastian," she said.

 _AN - Hello, again! Leave a review - I love them! Let me know, if you find any mistakes, spelling, grammar, context. /K._


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